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Seal installation, general industrial applications

To provide effective sealing, radial shaft seals must be installed properly. An experienced installer with suitable tools, working in a clean environment, is recommended to provide proper installation. The shaft counterface surface and housing bore should meet the demands specified in the sections Shaft requirements and Housing bore requirements.

To facilitate seal installation and to achieve initial lubrication, prior to installation, SKF recommends wiping the shaft and seal with the lubricant that is going to be retained. While the outside diameter of metal-cased seals can be lightly lubricated to ease installation, the outside diameter of rubber covered seals should always be lubricated.

Seals with an auxiliary, contacting lip can also be filled with grease between the sealing lip and auxiliary lip to reduce frictional moment. This does not apply to silicone rubber seals and seals with hydrodynamic features, other than SKF WAVE lip designs.

SKF also recommends using a hydraulic press, with suitable tools, to install a seal in its housing bore. Pressure should be applied as close as possible to the outside diameter of the seal.

Seals that are designed to sit flush with the wall of the housing bore must be installed perpendicular to the housing bore axis. The outside diameter of the tool should be larger than the housing bore diameter (fig 1).

If the sealing lip has to pass over grooves, threads or gearing, thin-walled installation sleeves (fig 5) can be used to prevent the lip from being damaged. The outside surface of the sleeve should be coated with the same lubricant that is used to lubricate the seal and counterface surface.